Pink Samurai
by Burst-in-Flames Tiger
Summary: Madoka Magica, but it follows a pink-haired samurai. The tale of a normal human who fights the witches at night, unknown by the rest of the populace.
1. Single-Slash

The streetlights illuminated the big city of Mitakihara. But even with the lights shining civilizations, humanity still weren't free from the clutch of darkness. A lone girl wandered the red light district amidst the adults that foregoes among the street. Turning around her head, she was ignored by the crowding of the lost. Her platform shoes tapped on the hard sidewalk, but her turning was silenced. By the time the people had realized a pink-haired girl was carrying a flower-patterned katana on her shoulder, she had gone out of their sight.

The alleyway the girl was delving forward into was between two tall buildings. They were too tall and overbuild, creating a barrier for people to gaze into the night sky. The concrete steps were slowly turning into a hard walk onto rough dirt. The pink-haired girl continued her pace despite the low visibility, and despite being in an entirely new land. The skyscrapers were gone and in their places were large white pillars commonly found in Grecian ruins. A big red moon hung in the sky uninterrupted. The last thing the pink-haired girl heard was a loud klaxon.

She followed the dirt trails to find animals of dark and mangled aesthetics roaming about. One of them, a blood-red rabbit with a human skull, leaped toward herl with its jaw ready to bite.

She passed by the rabbit without as much as dodging, and the rabbit was now in two.

Further down the rabbit trails, the pink-haired girl arrived before a large shrine. The shrine was directly below the moon. Its shades of red overtook the white exterior and the entrance door became that much darker compared to the girl's own shadow. The pink-haired girl placed the tip of her katana onto the door and traced a square-shape onto it. Sheathing her blade again, she kicked the middle of the traced area and there was now a clean-cut entrance there.

Crouching inside, she found herself inside a room full of scribbles. The fountain in the middle of the room sprouted something red. The girl walked to it and found its stickiness repulsive. Moving past that, she walked toward the middle room and kicked the door open, revealing a large dome-shaped altar with an angelic statue at the far end of the room. Walking on the blue and black carpet through the lines of pew and straight before the wooden podium. Standing behind it was the gigantic statue, which has a distorting and contorting mask for a face. Inside the face was red flower patterns that changed to a hundred eyes that stared before the katana-wielding girl.

The angelic statue was made out of stone, but the girl felt something else from the mysterious being. It mimicked the form of a saintly woman, whose hair-lock that was carved moved as if it was a snake. The saintly woman was naked, save for a piece of robe that sultrily cover the delicate parts of a woman. The pink-haired girl paid it no mind however, despite the billowing motion that was designed to lure the eyes of predators.

The girl however, was not a predator.

She was a hunter.

Jumping to the podium, the girl leapt toward the statue's neck and slashed it. The statue's head fell groggily to the floor as it made a loud sound. She landed on the statue's shoulder and bounced toward one of the pew. The girl simply stood ready as the pew slid back from the momentum of her landing. The flower-patterned sheathe behind her back, and her other hand pointed the katana toward the still head.

Short after, the head's hair sprouted out as if it was bursting. The hair became long and pushed the head up as it looked toward the girl with the katana. Its then distorted face was now a static distorted face that showed hundreds of eyes that stared back toward its aggressor. Using its hair as some sort of support, the statue rushed the girl as if it was a spider. From the distorted ball came down a jaw with a big snake for a tongue. The girl side-stepped and pushed the head with the back of her blade and watched as it crashed onto the wall.

The girl began distancing herself from the statue and waited for the statue to recover. She watched as something shadowy formed below the now listless statue, and soon found herself surprised. The shadow was alive and it began chasing toward the katana-wielding girl furiously. When it got near, a spike formed instantly that almost grazed the girl's pink hair. She ran around the altar, dodging the incoming spike as she pressed forth toward the statue.

Once the girl was in-reach of the statue, however, the statue jumped into the air and the shadow formed a gigantic spike from below the girl. This, however, was expected by her. Raising her katana, she unleashed a big swing downward that pushed back the shadow from only the sheer force of wind. The witch at this time was justifiably quite confused, as its movement began to turn ever erratic.

Taking this chance, the pink-haired girl kicked one of the closest pew that made the other pews leap into the air. Finding a safe destination, she jumped from one pew to the other in steadfast and breakneck speed. The witch after seeing this, flew away from the girl as it launched a ridiculous amount of spikes of many size. The pink samurai, wasn't the least bit flinched by this, jumped toward one of the incoming spikes and ran on top of it before the other spikes could ever hurt or even as much as hit a strand of her hair.

Holding her katana in both hands, the pink-haired girl sliced the statue into two and landed on the ground. The view before her began to distort but it was not her eyes. The entire landscape had begun to deteriorate. In the open plain of what the girl found to be an open-aired park in construction, a single dark-colored vial was left on the ground. She could previously heard the distinct sound of it when it hit the ground. It was the same sound she had heard for twenty times in a row.

"And that's another one," the girl said.

Pushing the vial onto her coat pocket, the pink-haired samurai retreated back into reality. Her effort for tonight was again unnoticed by the growing world's populace.


	2. Double-Back

A finger reached out for the alarm clock before it could rang a full second.

"I woke up on time again," she said fully awake. Setting the clock back, she stood from her bed and walked toward her closet. Bear slippers on her feet, she quietly made her way and picked out her school uniform. The uniform in her hand was held above her head, just enough for her to admire it again under the dim light seeping through the blinds. She couldn't believe that she was still a middle-schooler. Carrying it on her hand, the girl proceed to take a shower. "No, that's more like waking up just in time," she muttered as she closed the bathroom door.

After a brief shower, the girl turned toward a long corridor. At the end of the hall was a wooden door. Behind it was a room with a large mirror and a big vanity below it that matched the mirror's length. From one of the compartment, she pulled out a hair-dryer and plugged it onto a socket. Setting the wet towel neatly onto the dresser, the girl began drying her pink hair.

"Well, aren't you early again," a familiar voice called out to her. "This makes it the sixty-seventh time isn't it, Madoka?" the owner of said voice grabbed Madoka by the shoulder, and looked at the both of them on the mirror.

"Please don't tease me, Mama," Madoka placed the hair-dryer and in turn grabbed a set of ribbon on each hand. "Which should I pick today, Mom?"

"Red and Violet, huh? I'll go with red. Girls should be able to stand out while still being cute, don't you agree?"

"As expected of Mama. You really know what to say."

"Of course," said Mama. "When you get as old as I am, Madoka, you're going to be able to learn as much if not more," the short-haired woman before Madoka grinned. One hand softly touching the top of Madoka's head and the other one pinching the red ribbon. "How long has it been since I've tied up your hair? Nowadays you could do them perfectly that I couldn't spoil you anymore."

"You're still spoiling me, Mama."

"I know, I know," she laughed. "But it's the little spoiling like this that brings me the biggest joy. Is it so wrong?"

"No." Madoka smiled as she looked at the reflection in the mirror. It was nothing short of a painting of happiness. Her mother swiftly tied the ribbon and the day was progressing at a good start. Madoka placed her palm on her mother's hand and closed her eyes, and the time passed them by in silence. "I think it's wonderful."

* * *

Madoka walked out of her neighborhood and entered the park a short walk from home. It was a known short-cut to school known by everyone that attended there. The small architectural beauty of the canals it was famed for was created to flow the fountain's sprout. It was admired by her again, mainly from how the canals connected the fountain to almost the whole park, circling it and into the rivers found throughout Mitakihara. A small fish jumped out of the canal and made a miniscule splash. She smiled at that and continued onward, a tall and slender bag slung on her shoulder.

A little bit later Sayaka and Hitomi will be arriving near the fountain. Taking the chance in her free time, she found herself an empty space near the park's eastern resting area. Placing her bag on an empty bench, she opened it and pulled out a flower-patterned sheathed katana.

Madoka held the sheath firmly in one hand and took three steps back. As if her hand was as swift as the wind, she pulled out the sword and twirled it clockwise and then counter-clockwise. Mid-twirl, she switched hands with the other now holding the sheath. One time, two times, three times the hands switched their possessions before the girl thrust the sword forward. She, like a statue, froze in that stance. Almost unmoving, she kept the blade facing upward and pulled her elbow bit by bit. After her hands were beside her left ear, Madoka let her body set the motion. Breathe in, breathe out. A lone leaf passed by above her, descending slowly onto the blade facing upward. The leaf passed by the blade and softly landed on the ground. Madoka sheathed back her katana and sighed a relief. Looking at her hand gripping the sword, Madoka smiled.

Pulling up her cell, she looked at the time. Sayaka and Hitomi should be walking toward the exit of the park. Madoka placed the katana back into her bag and went back to where the fountain was. Walking away from the two-pieces of leaf, she hummed a song.

Sure enough, Sayaka and Hitomi was walking from her opposite direction. The blue-haired girl, Sayaka, waved her arm ecstatically. The green-haired girl, Hitomi, pushed her palm up and waved courteously at her. Both of them were smiling at her, Sayaka being the biggest out of the two.

Sayaka responded first by hugging Madoka with a jump. Her arms roped around the pink-haired girl's shoulder and both hands gripping the side of Madoka's arm. She continued by pressing her body forward and weighed Madoka with half her body weight. There was a soft skid on the ground as both girls played a short and dangerous game of helicopter. Sayaka landed softly after the third spin, and found herself looking at Madoka from her shoulder. "Good morning, Madoka!" greeted Sayaka with a cat-like smile. Madoka slowly formed a grin, though the edge of her lips were fidgeting.

"Good morning, Sayaka-chan," she replied. Madoka smiled at Sayaka and placed her hands on the blue-haired girl's shoulder. With a light push, she was now separated from Sayaka's grasp. "Good morning to you too, Hitomi-chan," Madoka said as she turned toward the green-haired girl still a far away from her. "We're having a fine weather today."

"Yes, it sure is sunny."

"Makes you think about the best things in life, doesn't it?" Sayaka chimed in. She set herself right and brushed the dust on her knee and socks. "How about we just skip school and lay on the grass?"

"Mou, we can't do that Sayaka-chan," Hitomi pouted. Her whole body bounced to the beat of her frowning. "Sensei's going to be mad at us again like last time. She'll then start talking about her boyfriend and how she hates him for being allergic to grass!"

"As much as it is unlikely for anyone to be allergic to grass, I can honestly believe she had dated someone like that before."

"Sayaka-chan that's too mean."

"You brought it up first!"

Madoka stood by the sideline as she looked at the two quarreling girls before her. Turning around, she started walking toward the park's exit. "Come on girls, if you don't start walking I'm afraid I have to leave you two."

At that signal, the two of them hurriedly chased after Madoka.

* * *

School began and ended without anything noteworthy happening. It was the same Thursday classes, the same teachers, the same classmates, and the same, ordinary, everyday life of a middle-school student. From here on would be the difference between the usual, or at least what Madoka had thought to be unusual.

Outside of her classroom was a row of girls lining up wearing kendo garbs. The protectors themselves looked heavy, but the helmets were the one that set them apart from the lightly-enthused. They were sitting on their shin, knees bent with their hands on top of them. Each of the twelve girls in the row bowed until their heads were at least a ruler's away from the ground. The most impressive thing was when they yelled in unison, "Please join the Kendo club, Kaname-san!"

And of course, Madoka rejected with a standing bow. "I'm sorry, I cannot."

"Why?"

"The answer will be the same every day, Nishinomiya-san," said the pink-haired girl. "I am flattered that you think of me highly, but I will have to decline. You already know why, don't you?"

"But... the competition is getting closer by the day and with an ace like you maybe—"

"I'm sorry, but I cannot do that anymore."

"Kaname-san!"

"Alright you Kendo bunch, that's enough." Sayaka clapped her hand from behind Madoka. The entire group's sight were turned to her. "It's fine if you're antsy about the competition, but instead of trying to make Madoka one of your ranks, why not spend the time practicing instead? Now, Madoka, let me handle this. You just go home, okay?"

"Thanks Sayaka," Madoka nodded and left toward the stairs. The Kendo bunch was about to chase after her, but Sayaka stood between them with her arms spread open.

"No can do, fellas."

* * *

The light shining through the skyscrapers from the west was the sun. Descending gradually proponent to the steps Madoka took. Every fifty steps, the pink-haired girl felt the sun lowering by about a centimeter. She blocked the sun with her hand as she continued toward an abandoned building. Relishing in the eased steps, her feet took her bit by bit atop the low hill. Before the road she took ended on a dilapidated building, there was a vending machine

But it mostly contains hot soups.

The clonking sound of a plastic bottle dropped onto the prize compartment, and a slender hand picked up a cold mineral water. She have had enough with eating sweet hot bean soup before hunting witches, it was not good for her stomach. Pressing the empty can with her fist, she readied herself to enter what was once a greatly-built shopping mall. It was abandoned and forgotten with time, until it became the nest of the world's distortion.

Eyeing her katana, she placed the sword's sheath just beside her waist and tied it around her school uniform's skirt. Madoka hid her bag inside a nearby tree hole and turned her eye toward the building once more.

The step she took was light, and close to being silent. It was the total opposite of how she walked every single day, and that would be one of the best tools to corner a witch and putting the odds in her favor. A single step later and the world's noisiness was a faraway noise, unable to penetrate this bubbled reality.

* * *

A girl with a uniform of cream and dark plaid skirt quietly walked toward the abandoned building. She didn't bring her bag as she went home first before doing what she was doing for a lot of straight years. Her fingertips made a ripple on the witch's barrier, and as she spread her hands open and wide, could see that something was obscenely wrong with the unbreakable cocoon. She skipped the formalities and transformed in an instant, dashing past the nearby familiars and avoiding them like the plague.

Someone was already inside, and she was fighting the witch.

True to her hunch, as she entered the deepest part of the garden of madness. Mami Tomoe found herself looking at another girl, at least one or two years younger than her. She was holding a katana in one hand with the other holding its sheath. The blade was long, enough to dig deep and cleave a thick wall in two, yet the girl was dodging attacks agilely from around her. It was as if she knew the attack was coming and already planned their countermeasures from two to three steps ahead.

She was simply astounding.

Her petite figure was contrasted by her long, ridiculously sturdy katana. Her soft demeanor was shadowed by the offsetting powers in each of the girl's savage slashes. And the steps and dodges she took great patience on was a unique and artful dance that she did practice for in a rigorous routine. An ordinary human could never be able to move the way she did.

The blonde-haired magical girl could, but she could never be able to do those athletic feats as a mere human being.

The plant-looking witch couldn't help but be obnoxiously bad at its job. From being unable to hit or even graze the pink samurai to how much of a pushover the witch is. She was taking much damage by the minute, and even by the second, yet it just outright refused to keel over and die a peaceful death.

And Mami wasn't going to watch this humiliating circus any longer. She felt that she owed the girl a favor, the witch that is. And so she acted naturally to the given situation at hand: A swift interruption!

"You there, move aside!"

From Mami's empty palm appeared a large white cannon with many engravings and cute embroideries in black. She knew that it wasn't probably the best course of action, but she'd rather help than stand by the sidelines waiting for the war of attrition to end one-sidedly. "Here goes nothing: Tiro Finale!"

And a burst of raw gigantic magical laser blasted off through the witch's body, creating a large and apparent hole at its center. The humongous atrocity stopped in its track, its rose-shaped thing Mami presumed to be its eyes froze in place staring toward the yellow magical girl. She turned from the witch to the pink-haired girl, gazing at her with a guarding stance from afar.

"It's okay! I'm not going to hurt or pick a fight with you now. I only came here to help."

"I see," but her stance didn't waver. "But I'm not going to take my chances."

"Well, this whole realm will crumble in a few minutes anyway. There's not really any point in fighting each other afterward."

Madoka's eyes widened a bit.

"You know about this... whatever this is?"

"I do," Mami smiled as she replied, though it was a sly and teasing smile. "But that means you don't know what any of this is, do you? You're not another Puella Magi?"

"Magical Girl? I'm sorry I don't know what you're talking about."

"I see." The world around the two distorted in an anti-climactic fade, and only a piece of dark jewel made a distinct sound that the two were familiar of. "Well, let's start with introducing ourselves then. My name is Mami Tomoe, third-year student from Mitakihara junior high. It's nice to meet you."

"Madoka Kaname, second-year student. Same junior high. Nice to meet you too."

There was a long silence in the air, as they stared toward each other on the roof of said abandoned building. The sun was barely setting, but the chilling night's wind were blown away by the tension between the two. Suddenly, Madoka Kaname released her stance as if the world understood her impulsive change. This not only surprised Mami, it also made a large opening for Madoka to dash past the grief seed and held Mami by the tip of her blade.

"Sorry, but that trick won't work on me." In a flash, the figure that was once flesh and blood exploded into ribbons surprise. "I've finally found myself a comrade, I'm not going to be done in by a misunderstanding." The blonde-haired girl picked up the grief seed and placed it inside her skirt's left pocket. "Worry not, I will guarantee your secret and I will never harm a single strand of hair on your body. That would simply be unrefined."

Sheathing the blade again, Madoka's relaxed eyes met Mami's glaring eyes.

"What do you want?"

"Hmmm..." the questioned placed a finger on her chin, truly pondering her request. She finally made a decision, and a bright smile appeared on her face. "How about you and I have a nice dessert I made today? It's apple pie and I can't finish it by myself."

"...Are you serious?"


	3. Third-Duel

It was of no strange coincidence that the two met. They were living in the same town, the same neighborhood, and as she recalled; the same school. Mami Tomoe vaguely remembered her pink-haired twin-tailed body walking the hallway of the academy. At the time it felt like something she wouldn't remember, like the save file of some retro game she hadn't played for three months, but when she finally remembered it all clicked in her head. A master of kendo not joining the kendo club while lugging a sword all over the campus close to her at all times.

And now, she was having tea with said kendo master. The girl sat like a lady. Shin against her red-colored heart-shaped pillow. It wasn't grace that filled her atmosphere, but reckless danger that came from the katana laid on the pink-haired samurai's shoulder.

Taking a deep breath, the blonde girl started.

"Let me be frank. Are you an ally or an enemy?"

Mami Tomoe placed an emphasis on "ally". Presenting the choice first to indicate the topic of the conversation. This was never an idle conversation. This was always with interrogation in mind.

"Neither."

And with that Mami's decision was clear.

"Please, elaborate."

"I'm neither an ally nor an enemy to Magical Girls," the tone that came from the samurai's mouth was terse, cold. There was bitterness in her tone of voice. Her beast-like glare was a long-shot from a feral cat. It was as if Mami had locked her eyes to an apex predator, the king of the savanna. Even if it was her room, it felt like she was overstepping her boundary inside a lion's den. "Sooner or later, the galaxy as we know it will end, but we will not be there to witness it unfold. What use is a cause that only benefits the future and not the present? Those critters aren't Gods, you know. They die if they are killed, they are wounded if they are harmed, and their numbers are finite despite their unbridled arrogance."

"So you know about Kyubey... no, the Incubator's plan?"

"And you willingly accepted a fool's errand," Madoka sighed. "You know that you are being used, right? There will be nothing but strive and suffering ahead and still you are going to gamble on uncertainty? Magical Girls can still die. You're not invincible."

"As long as I can help other people I'm prepared to sacrifice everything."

"Spare me your holier-than-thou excuses. No one in this day and age are born dreaming a martyr for themselves." She set her tea cup on its plate, apparently empty. "Are you that afraid to come up with something selfish for a reason?"

"Then what's your excuse!?"

"I want to defeat that my friend cannot defeat," Madoka picked up her sheathed blade and showed its clean and polished entirety to Mami. "This sword is the proof of my bond with her. This blade, En-oh Homura, is what tied me with her. A bond that someone like you will never comprehend inside this blade she lived eternally inside my soul. My friend's will that was passed on to me, I will enact her desire upon the world. The consequences be damned."

The burning glare inside Madoka's eyes spoke truth to her conviction.

It was neither her selfishness nor her aforementioned friend. There was something more to her thirst for revenge. Her desire for vengeance. It was as if a hot and burning wind began enveloping her room. The temperature suddenly shot up a million degrees and it was both pressuring and deafening.

She cannot compare to the Pink Samurai.

That girl had completely lost her mind.


End file.
